United Kingdom

NVIDIA announced new services and platforms aimed at accelerating the development of humanoid robotics. Unveiled at the SIGGRAPH conference, the offerings include NVIDIA NIM microservices, the OSMO orchestration service, and a teleoperated data capture workflow. These tools are designed to aid robot manufacturers, AI model developers, and software creators in building the next generation of humanoid robots.

At least 30% of generative AI (GenAI) projects will be abandoned after proof of concept by the end of 2025, due to poor data quality, inadequate risk controls, escalating costs or unclear business value, according to Gartner.

Schiphol Airport, in collaboration with KLM Cityhopper and KLM Ground Services, has commenced the second phase of a trial for electric self-driving buses. This phase involves a fixed, pre-programmed route transporting KLM Cityhopper crew between the apron and the terminal. The initial phase, conducted earlier this year, focused on testing the technical features and usability of the buses provided by supplier Ohmio.

One Equity Partners (OEP) is set to acquire a majority stake in robot maker Comau. Stellantis N.V., created from the merger of FCA and Groupe PSA in January 2021, will keep a minority stake. With OEP’s investment, Comau will get extra funding to boost its operations in Italy and expand into different sectors. The leadership team, including Executive Chairman Alessandro Nasi and CEO Pietro Gorlier, will stay the same.

THINK Surgical, based in Fremont, California, has announced that its TMINI Miniature Robotic System (TMINI 1.1) has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The clearance allows the company to market the updated system, which offers enhanced capabilities for total knee arthroplasty procedures.

Global humanoid robot shipments will exceed 10,000 units by 2027 and reach 38,000 units by 2030. This forecast implies a compound annual growth rate of 83% from 2024 to 2030, according to Omdia’s latest research, Robotics Hardware Market Forecast – 2021–30. 

Researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) are leveraging artificial intelligence to train robotic dogs to respond to their owners. This international collaboration, funded by a one-year seed grant from the Institute for Future Technologies (IFT)—a partnership between NJIT and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU)—aims to innovate how robotic dogs interact with humans through edge intelligence.

Although artificial intelligence, IT, healthcare, and biotech companies continue raising billions of dollars in funding rounds, the broader VC funding market faces headwinds from geopolitical instability, economic uncertainty, and high interest rates. As a result, the total value of deals is expected to grow by only 3% in 2024, following a 4.2% decline in 2023. The market projections for the next year show similar activity.

Scale-up companies have expanded in Europe with the help of public organisations including the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group, but these businesses face persistent financing barriers that the EU can do more to tackle, according to a new EIB report.

Vayu Robotics has introduced an on-road Delivery Robot, which combines AI foundation models with low-cost, lidar-less passive sensors. Announced this week in San Francisco, this robot aims to reduce the cost of e-commerce deliveries as online shopping continues to grow, with 23% of American retail purchases expected to be online by 2027.